Monday, April 12, 2010

Brahms Op. 118 No. 2

I am having a great extended weekend. My workplace decided to close today and tomorrow because downtown DC is going to be a mess for commuters, with the summit on nuclear weapons being held not too far from where I work. And we're having beautiful spring weather on top of it.

I consider this still a work in progress. I'd like to figure out how to make the bass line less relentless without destroying the pulse. I'd like everything to be more legato. I think I'm on the right track with this, though.

I did a little YouTube research last week to hear how real pianists interpret this piece. This was the weirdest one, IMO, clocking in at almost 9 minutes (most performances are 5 to 6 minutes):

One of the commenters (though I usually don't read them -- YouTube comments generally range from worthless to offensive) described the tempo as "rubato on crack." Everything is so stretched that I think you really lose the line. It's also very percussive, oddly enough, with some notes randomly bashed out. Maybe a pianist of this stature plays this way to show that he's thinking outside the box -- way outside!

I think that whenever you learn a piece like this that is played so much, you need to ignore the fact that thousands of other people have played it before you (and will do so after you) and just listen to the piece on its own merits and, ultimately, use your own judgment about it. The end result may not be startling, but it will be true to your taste and to your feelings about what the composer intended.

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Well-Tempered Clavier Project

I am on a quest to learn all 48 sets of preludes and fugues in Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, "learning" including memorizing. I thought it might be interesting to collect all of my Bach efforts in one place; see the list below. Clicking on the link will open the recording so you can listen to it.

The recordings are in reverse chronological order (oldest last). The earliest was recorded in 2006.

I am NOT implying that these are definitive interpretations! Rather, this is meant to document my development as an amateur pianist.

I have actually learned these others as well but never tried recording them; maybe someday I will go back and resurrect them:

WTC II/20 in A minor
WTC I/21 in B flat major
WTC I/1 in C major
WTC I/2 in C minor